This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, college readiness, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues with additional focus at the national level.

Translate

Tx Trib Schools Explorer

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

'Icons & Symbols' at UTEP Centennial Museum

"Icons and Symbols of the Borderlands" is one of the most powerful art exhibits I've ever seen. Hats off to curator and former Austin-ite, Diana Molina, for doing such an excellent job in pulling all of this exquisite, hard-hitting work together.

Story Highlights

The Rio Grande. La Virgen de Guadalupe. Pancho Villa. Matachines.
Some
images have shaped the El Paso region throughout its history,
says artist Diana Molina, curator of the upcoming Juntos Art
Association exhibit “Icons and Symbols of the Borderlands.”
“Who
are those cultural figures that we've seen and we've grown up with?" she
asked as she surveyed some of the art that will be featured at the
Centennial Museum and the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at the University of
Texas at El Paso.
"The artworks are symbols of the Borderland," Molina said. "They reach across time and across continent."
More
than 60 pieces will be on display for the “Icons and Symbols of the
Borderlands” show. They will be available for purchase, with prices
ranging from $800 to $10,000.

Molina,
who is executive director of Juntos, used one of her own paintings —
one that combines the flow of the Rio Grande with green and
gold color — to illustrate that the exhibit is meant to represent the
broader history of the border region, from the arrival of the Spanish to
the importance that religion and landscape play in the shaping of the
region's identity.
Her "Serape XX" is a collage using of what she called basura, trash
— discarded beer labels and candy wrappers. "Some people see the
river," Molina said, pointing to the stream of Dos Equis wraps. "It's
just an abstract depiction. People see many different things in it."
The piece is listed to sell for $7,700.

Among
other noted artists in the exhibit are César Martínez and Gaspar
Enríquez. Some of the artists will talk about their work
before an opening reception Oct. 10.

The exhibit will be on
display through Jan. 16 at UTEP's Centennial Museum. It will feature
artists from the Juntos Art Association, which was founded in 1985
and aims to promote cultural awareness through the arts.

“I’m excited more now than with any Juntos shows that I’ve ever been involved in,” Molina said.
The
exhibit will feature a lecture series from October through December.
They will offer short films and themed discussions on topics such as
“Día de los Muertos” and “La Virgen de Guadalupe.”

"Our
museum serves many different functions. First and foremost it's a
natural history museum of the Chihuahuan Desert, so that's what our
permanent galleries are about. With our changing galleries, we do like
to focus on border life and culture as well as the Chihuahuan Desert,"
said Maribel Villalba, Centennial Museum director.

"This show was a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the border life and culture."

Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; lclopez@gannett.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter